The Hindu : Kamal Nath may find the going tough this time

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Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

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Kamal Nath may find the going tough this time

By Lalit Shastri

CHHINDWARA (MADHYA PRADESH), MARCH 22. All eyes would be fixed on the Chhindwara Parliamentary constituency in the upcoming elections as the electoral battle would be fought this time for this prestigious seat between the senior Congress leader, Kamal Nath, and the Union Minister for Coal, Prahlad Patel.

The constituency, in the south-western region of the Satpura mountain ranges, has eight Assembly segments: Jamai, Chhindwara, Parasia, Damua, Amarwara, Chourai, Saunsar and Pandhurna. A large section of voters in this constituency comprises tribals including the Gond, Bharia, and Korku tribes. The Gonds constitute a largest chunk and this is one big reason why the Gondwana Gantantra Party has now become a destabilising factor--more so for the Congress which has tried to nurse the tribal vote bank under Mr. Nath's leadership in Chhindwara.

Chhindwara was considered the home turf of Mr. Nath, who had won this seat for the seventh time in the 1999 elections. However his image as the unquestioned leader in this territory went for a six when the Congress lost all the eight Assembly seats falling within the Chhindwara district in the just- concluded Assembly elections. All these seats had gone to the Congress party in the 1998 elections. While the BJP wrested seven of the eight Assembly seats from the Congress party, the Gondwana gantantra Party has captured the Amarwada seat dominated by Gond voters. Mr. Nath withstood the anti-incumbency factor every time he contested from here, except once in 1997 when he lost the mid-term election to the senior BJP leader, Sunderlal Patwa. He avenged this defeat in the next election by convincing the electorate about his ability to get "their work done''. But this time round, even his staunch supporters appear worried. A shopkeeper near the Dussehra Maidan here, who had a Congress flag fluttering on his small single-shutter establishment, told this correspondent after the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, had addressed a huge public rally on Saturday that Mr. Nath would now find it difficult to carry on with the image of "a leader who can get things done'' with the BJP now in power in Madhya Pradesh.

As a strategy, the BJP poll managers are making it certain that they do not deviate from the development agenda and even Mr. Advani had echoed the same message when he said that the Congress, which had ruled for more than 45 years since Independence, was solely responsible for the scourge of hunger and poverty as well as lack of roads and basic facilities in the rural areas. He asserted this while addressing the people at Saunsar and again at the public rally at Chhindwara yesterday. Ramji Pradhan, a villager who had come to see Mr. Advani at Saunsar when his Rath Yatra entered the State, said with an air of rustic wisdom that more than any other agenda the people are now eager for speedy development and jobs for all. This is exactly what the BJP is now promising, he asserted.

The Chhindwara area is rich in forest wealth. Besides teak and bamboo, the territory also maintains a huge supply of minor forest produce which particularly includes sal seed, tendu leaves and harra. On the mining front, the district also produces huge quantities of coal, manganese and dolomite. Although the Chhindwara district is richly endowed with natural resources, there is extreme poverty and lack of jobs in this region. The Union Minister and BJP candidate in Chhindwara, Prahlad Patel, who has moved out of Balaghat to contest this seat, said that the Gondwana Gantantra Party, which would also be contesting this seat, would be banking heavily on the Gond votes. The idea is to take them "head on'' and convince the tribals that they should give up the agenda of excluding all other sections of community in a democracy as this experiment cannot work even if some one tries to implement it at the village level, he emphasised.

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Kamal Nath may find the going tough this time